About Puni
Puni is a distillery, not a winery, founded in 2010 by the Ebensperger family in Glurns, South Tyrol, Italy. It is Italy's first single malt whisky distillery, producing whisky using locally sourced grains and Alpine spring water. Puni is known for its innovative maturation techniques, aging its spirits in a variety of casks including ex-wine, ex-bourbon, and ex-sherry barrels.
Prices are for take away and shipping. The wine bar serves from its own list.
The winery
About Puni
The distillery
Puni is a malt whisky distillery in Glurns, in the Venosta Valley of South Tyrol, close to the Ortler mountain range. It is named after the river that runs through the valley. The Ebensperger family, after many years of collecting and tasting whisky, founded it in 2010. The founder is the builder Albrecht Ebensperger, and the building, a cube of 13 by 13 metres, was designed by the local architect Werner Tscholl. The pattern on its outer skin recalls the barn windows of the region. The whole production plant is in the basement, and the visitor centre and shop are on the ground floor.
Two copper pot stills, made by Forsyths in Scotland, stand at the centre of the distillery. They are heated with superheated water instead of steam, which allows a precise and gentle distillation. After two years of building the team distilled for the first time in 2012, and the first wash still was heated on 24 February. The visitor centre opened in the autumn of that year. The first whiskies, Nova and Alba, were released in 2015 after over three years of ageing.
The water comes from springs in the Stelvio National Park and is naturally soft. South Tyrol has warm, dry summers and cold, wet winters, which the distillery says speeds up maturation, so the whisky is balanced after a fairly short time.
The spirits
Early on the distillery used malted barley, wheat and rye. Since 2016 it has focused mostly on pure barley malt, bought mainly in Italy, with peated malt brought in from Britain for the smoky bottlings. Fermentation takes place in five larch wood vats from South Tyrol and lasts around 96 hours. The first distillation takes about seven hours.
Puni matures its whisky in a mix of casks: ex bourbon from the United States, Italian wine casks including ex Marsala and ex Chardonnay, ex sherry from Spain, peated casks and virgin oak. The core range includes Gold (43%, ex bourbon), Sole (46%, ex bourbon and Pedro Ximénez sherry) and Vina (43%, ex Marsala), alongside limited editions called Arte and Aura and the Cubo bottlings sold at the distillery. The whiskies are bottled at natural colour without chill filtration.
- Founded
- 2010 (first distillation 2012)
- Owners
- Ebensperger family